Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Lifted to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

Several other analysts have also commented on GILD. Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research note on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday. Truist Financial cut Gilead Sciences from a buy rating to a hold rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $91.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $76.00 to $74.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $83.60.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

GILD opened at $65.94 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $71.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $76.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market capitalization of $82.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 183.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.19. Gilead Sciences has a 1-year low of $64.63 and a 1-year high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.49) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $6.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 1.76%. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Gilead Sciences will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is 855.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gilead Sciences

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total transaction of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,026,339.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences in the third quarter worth $26,000. Tompkins Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 223.1% in the third quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 349 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Sachetta LLC bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

About Gilead Sciences

Gilead Sciences, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in the areas of unmet medical need in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides Biktarvy, Genvoya, Descovy, Odefsey, Truvada, Complera/ Eviplera, Stribild, Sunlencs, and Atripla products for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; Veklury, an injection for intravenous use, for the treatment of COVID-19; and Epclusa, Harvoni, Vemlidy, and Viread for the treatment of viral hepatitis.